Swedish death metallers AMON AMARTH have officially entered the studio to begin recording their new album for a tentative June release via Metal Blade Records. The CD is being helmed by British producer Andy Sneap, who has previously worked with (MEGADETH, EXODUS, MACHINE HEAD, ARCH ENEMY and ACCEPT.

Regarding AMON AMARTH's decision to work with Sneap after utilizing Jens Bogren for the band's last three studio efforts (2006's "With Oden On Our Side", 2008's "Twilight Of The Thunder God" and 2011's "Surtur Rising"), AMON AMARTH guitarist Olavi Mikkonen told Decibel magazine, "We were looking for a change, and Andy has been in our thoughts for some years now. After meeting with him, we felt a good connection. We think this is going to be a ripper."

Meh, I don't really care. I kind of think they've become a parody of the band they used to be (the bobbleheads really aren't helping with that). I liked Twilight, but even then I could tell they were moving in a new direction that I probably wouldn't like. They've always been melodic and whatnot, but now they are more accessible than ever and a lot of their stuff on the last album almost feels like the melodeath version of power metal. Not that the last album was horrible, but it's something I almost never feel the need to listen to. To be honest, I've kind of written them off. I still like some of their old stuff, but at this point I'm not holding my breath for another good album.

They always write good stuff, but I've never been huge on them because they seem to have a big blend factor - maybe I just need to hear the right stuff (any suggestions?). I'm sure it'll still be good material though, I'll take some listens.

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I'll stick with With Oden on Our Side, it's one of my favorite albums of all time and they are getting very samey and uninspired even though I liked the 2 last albums, it's just not as memorable. I'll check it out because I'm a fan but I don't have huge expectations.

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CHAIRTHROWER wrote:

Metantoine, what does "fam" stand for, "familiar"? Like a witch's familiar?!...Have you been playing d & D again?...

With Oden on Our Side is actually pretty cool, one of the very few melodic death albums I have positive thoughts towards. The earlier stuff always felt a bit flat to me, and the last couple of albums have been complete drivel. Time will tell if I get up the wherewithall to bother subjecting myself to this one. Not sure how a big clunky Sneap production will go with melodeath, so that might intrigue me enough.

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Naamath wrote:

No comments, no words need it, no BM, no compromise, only grains in her face.

Though I like some stuff, I never really understood why they became huge

Most likely just listen to a few youtube tracks, maybe buy it if it seems worth it

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Smoking_Gnu wrote:

Hmm, I actually wouldn't mind buying him a sauna if it would reduce the odds of me getting infected by his excess sensitive-skin flakes that get blown off in the wind. I don't want to turn into a cunt.

I find it quite difficult to sort out what I actually think of Amon Amarth. Most of my friends absolutely love them, so, whatever I think of the new record, I know I'll be hearing about it ad nauseam; I'm already bracing myself for the Viking-themed outings, parties, images, emails and goodness knows what else that are headed my way...

Still, I'm being whiny there. While I don't listen to melodeath these days, the albums up to and including 'With Oden...' hold great sentimental value for me at least, and that record is - as for ghengis above - one of the few of that style that I still favour when I do come across it. So I'll certainly be looking out for the new one; I can't help it. And I hope they'll tour the new one here again; their gigs are always quite fun - they're one of the bands that tend to draw all of my metalhead friends together, regardless of our otherwise disparate tastes, and we always get a nice big troupe of wannabe Vikings together for their shows.

Haha, I'm very glad I'm not good enough friends with the person I know who makes all those viking parties that I'm expected to go. At any rate there's still going to be lots of "Look at my viking party outfit" and random lyric snippet posts on facebook to trawl through.

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Naamath wrote:

No comments, no words need it, no BM, no compromise, only grains in her face.

Amon Amarth has been putting out material that sounds similar since their inception. Surtur Rising was their second worst album in my opinion(next to Fate of Norns) but I felt as if there was some quality material on it. I can understand how some would get bored with the sound but personally, I enjoy their sound. I also enjoy their consistency, which is a feat in itself. I am looking forward to whatever they produce.

I loved em back when Once... came out, first thing I had from them was sorrow throughout the nine worlds, still have that digipak to this day. Seen em live three times, I'll always be a fan regardless of the idiotic tools who like them simply for the novelty of it.

Looking forward to this. Twilight was pretty good, just haven't listened to Surtur Rising yet. hopefully this next album is heavier than Twilight was... I dont remember where I heard this (possibly on this forum) and don't know how true this is but someone said that the next album is gonna have a Game of Thrones theme to it (never watched it and I'm not saying its gonna be like a soundtrack or anything, just similar I guess)... got a feeling I'll get flamed for that one lol

I know I'll be hearing about it ad nauseam; I'm already bracing myself for the Viking-themed outings, parties, images, emails and goodness knows what else that are headed my way...

I think this is the problem a lot of people have (or at least I do) with Amon Amarth - the band itself is pretty damn good, their music is genuinely cool and they have a GREAT live presence... but liking them associates me (albeit indirectly) with the sort of idiots that wear shirts that say "odin statt jesus" and drink mead out of drinking horns tied to their kilts in the middle of summer because "that's metal". I know you *shouldn't* judge bands by their fans but fuck, such a massive % of the AA fanbase are those embarrassing nerd-types. That, and AA was so obviously the template for Dethklok, which is aimed directly at said nerds. Everything surrounding them makes me cringe, but the band itself kicks arse. Unfair, eh?

OT: I'll probably give this new album a listen - their standard is pretty high, although I only ever really bother with their first album these days.

the sort of idiots that wear shirts that say "odin statt jesus" and drink mead out of drinking horns tied to their kilts in the middle of summer because "that's metal"

That describes the people I know to a tee! Seriously - if anyone sees a group of people like that in the streets of Melbourne, there's a very high chance that I'll know them. Or, with peer pressure and/or alcohol, be amongst them for a while.

I think this is the problem a lot of people have (or at least I do) with Amon Amarth - the band itself is pretty damn good, their music is genuinely cool and they have a GREAT live presence... but liking them associates me (albeit indirectly) with the sort of idiots that wear shirts that say "odin statt jesus" and drink mead out of drinking horns tied to their kilts in the middle of summer because "that's metal". I know you *shouldn't* judge bands by their fans but fuck, such a massive % of the AA fanbase are those embarrassing nerd-types. That, and AA was so obviously the template for Dethklok, which is aimed directly at said nerds. Everything surrounding them makes me cringe, but the band itself kicks arse. Unfair, eh?

Agreed. While the band is great, expanding to a much higher scale the viking theme used by Unleashed, and besides the theme releasing better music than most of the so-called melodeath pioneers, unfortunately huge part of their fanbase is gas chamber material.

I have everything by AA, but I still prefer Twilight over all their albums, including Oden. Surtur wasn't realling floating my boat, though, so I'm not sure how much I expect of this.

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John_Sunlight wrote:

Gif logos are a rare and special thing. They should be reserved only for truly exceptional and rare and special and important bands, bands like Blind Guardian and... Blind Guardian. This should be in the rules.

This is one of my biggest failings - all I have to do is walk past a brewery and everything I hate (there's a fair bit of it) is forgotten and I want to be everyone's mate, even people I think are otherwise total dickheads. Haha actually, on the topic of Melbourne metalheads, I saw Blind Guardian there in ... 2005? 2006? and there was this pub over the road from Flinders St station (you'd probably know the one, there are a lot of paintings on the wall and they have their own wheat beer that tastes suspiciously like Hoegaarden with a different label on the tap) and some BG fans organised a nerdmeet of sorts there some time in the afternoon before the gig. When we turned up they were having a "Nightfall" a capella sing-along, complete with divvying up of the various vocal harmonies, so each nerd had his own special part.

(gotta stop using the word nerd, it makes me sound like a total jock douche, which I'm not)

Anyway long story short, when we walked in I was like "oh christ, this is beyond embarrassing"... but after about 4 beers I made friends with them.

Awesome. Amon Amarth was more or less THE band that really got me serious about heavy metal as a passion, so of course I am looking forward to this. I enjoyed Surtur Rising quite a bit, for most of the tracks. There were some dull moments on the album, but overall it was pretty good. I have faith in the band, they always striked me as being very consistent. Though I find myself listening to them sparingly these days.

Outstanding! Can't wait. Amon Amarth is always good, consistent death metal, and even though Surtur Rising was a little weak as a whole it still produced some killer tracks. For those who yearn for the good old Amon Amarth days, that's what Surtur Rising is. It's way more akin to say The Avenger than Oden or Twilight.

I have some level of faith that this might be good. Surture was average, but Hegg is still a good vocalist, and Sneap producing is a strange prospect. Yes, we all pretty much know what to expect, but you never know. Look at Cannibal Corpse, super consistent band who released arguably their best album this year. Anything is possible, prepare for metal magic.

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theposaga about a Moonblood rehearsal wrote:

So good. Makes me want to break up with my girlfriend, quit my job and never move out of my parents house. Just totally destroy my life for Satan.

Bought Fate of Norns in September 2007 and I could say that's when I truly delved into metal headfirst from that moment on. Have a superb collection of about 500-600 CDs from the obscure to the internationally known, and all thanks largely to this one band.

I think that the band's discography is split - beginning with Sorrow Throughout the Nine Worlds EP through to Versus the World the band played a rawrer, more barbaric style of melodic death metal. The riffs were often tremolo picked, adding an aggressive, blackened feel to their music and the vocals were shouted, screamed, bellowed, grunted and growled. I think that THIS is the true sound of Amon Amarth; beginning with the very CD that I was first exposed to, they began seeking a more accessible sound, and I think that mostly it's that they've been incorporating Gothenburg melodeath influences, rather than previously, where they added melody to death metal (if that distinction makes sense to anyone besides me haha). Amon Amarth were from Stockholm, where Bathory and Unleashed came from. They are a kind of trifecta where extreme metal and viking met in Sweden in the late 80s/early 90s. And now that Amon Amarth are getting a little older and little more chill, they are becoming more like their countrymen from Gothenburg and played a more laid-back, MORE melodic version of what they had before.

Mind you, I think they CAN make this new sound work - behind Versus the World, WOOOS is my second-fav Amon Amarth album, and it's fully rooted in what Twilight brought to full fruition - but I think their strength was in that early, barbaric sound - not this sleek, modern mess of perfect production values.

Anyways, just my two coppers.

_________________"Doom is the blues of metal, you either feel it or you don't."-Doomsday

With Oden On Our Side was the album that got me into melodeath. But after that I feel like their albums kind of got worse and less memorable every release. I still enjoy Twilight but got bored pretty easily with Surtur Rising. I'll still be picking this album up but with lower expectations.

I'm buying it because I am an AA completist but I doubt it will be groundbreaking.

This. There is always hope for a second "With Oden On Our Side"; I'd prefer something in the vein of their first three albums, but their approach to production seems to have a changed so much since then that I doubt that's likely.

This is one of my biggest failings - all I have to do is walk past a brewery and everything I hate (there's a fair bit of it) is forgotten and I want to be everyone's mate, even people I think are otherwise total dickheads. Haha actually, on the topic of Melbourne metalheads, I saw Blind Guardian there in ... 2005? 2006? and there was this pub over the road from Flinders St station (you'd probably know the one, there are a lot of paintings on the wall and they have their own wheat beer that tastes suspiciously like Hoegaarden with a different label on the tap) and some BG fans organised a nerdmeet of sorts there some time in the afternoon before the gig. When we turned up they were having a "Nightfall" a capella sing-along, complete with divvying up of the various vocal harmonies, so each nerd had his own special part.

(gotta stop using the word nerd, it makes me sound like a total jock douche, which I'm not)

Anyway long story short, when we walked in I was like "oh christ, this is beyond embarrassing"... but after about 4 beers I made friends with them.

Exactly; quite a few folky bands will be touring here this year, and I know I'll inevitably stop resisting and go along with it. I do know that pub very well, actually; more than that, I know people who were there that very night (though I myself wasn't in Melbourne at the time). Small world!

Another thing that strikes me with AA - they were doing this whole Viking thing long before it reached its current level of popularity (not saying that they were the first to do so - of course they weren't, by far); I remember when 'Viking metal' wasn't a thing, and the Viking theme was still something of an oddity. Now that the theme is so wildly and widely popular, the band are embracing this and appealing to that whole trend, rather than, say, distancing themselves from it or claiming that the theme/music is being misunderstood/diluted (as is sometimes the case when a certain style or trope is popularised like this). While it's refreshing not to see the typical negative reaction to the popularisation of a theme, I doubt that AA's enthusiastic response (while understandable) is beneficial to the music itself; they need to release music that will let them stay relevant to their fans when the next new thing comes along for the demographic currently enjoying the costumes.

Killer!! Amon have been my all time favourite band for about 10+ Years now, have every release, digi pak, cassette, vinyl, picLP, i'll definately be doing a pre-order for this one.

Despite what anyone says, i fucking loved Surtur Rising, heaps of energy, awsome melodic riffs, brutal vocals. I think a lot of people get sick of them because they have become so massive, which i dont really understand. To me, every real metal head should have atleast 1 Amon album! (if not all)

Fuck Yeah! Another tour will be due on 2014 i reckon for Australia, need to try and make attleast 3 of the shows this time!

And to whoever said it, i agree, Fate of Norns is my least favourite album too, but i still reckon it's awsome.

I haven't really enjoyed them since the Avenger. Not that everything after is ass, I just hear it and I'm extremely indifferent and unmoved. I give each new album a shot though, a few I bought after the Avenger but overall... just can't care.

Won't surprise me if this sounded like everything else... For some reason this band never clicked with me and I don't know why. There's like 1-2 good tracks and the rest of the album ends up a snoozefest.... A Canorous Quintet is a bit similar yet I find their material much more interesting than anything Amon Amarth has ever done so errrrrrr yeah

I really liked Surtur Rising( For Victory or Death is simply awesome!!) but I would like to listen a faster and more powerful album. I also expect another spectacular album cover though the last one was not my favourite( TOTGs cover is unbeatable!).

I was a little late to the AA party, I never sat down and listened to them until Twilight which, reluctantly, is still my favorite album of theirs. I consider With Oden to be superior as far as sound and creativity but I just end up listening to Twilight more often. It's some of my favorite strength training music of all time.

Surtur? Meh. It has a couple songs I love on there but I really couldn't get into it that much, most of the songs after the first one and the corny ass cover of Balls to the Wall just aren't memorable. So I dunno what to expect out of the new stuff.

I haven't listened to this band for years besides seeing one alright live show. This exceptional stage presence people call for wasn't actually there; it was a routine show without any enthusiasm beyond their ever vanishing thrill of playing to big audiences...

I might revisit some of their material for nostalgy reasons, why not. I doubt I will get so far with them as to actually consider listening to a new album. Twilight is the furthest I ever got with Amon Amarth. The first albums had a couple of good parts, although Tägtgren and Abyss studios did their best to make them sound like crap.

I don't know if i'll actually give that a listen. Musically, the band has gone downhill since 'Versus the World'. In the sense, it's more like old wine packed in a new bottle so to say. I know I haven't listened intently to the stuff they put out but that's what I felt by listening to their songs from time to time. I used to look up to these guys a lot in the early 2000s and then they became a fad when 'pursuit of vikings' made a massive explosion on the scene. I'd still defend them on the so called gimmicky synchronized windmill headbanging because they used to do that way before it got noticed by the mainstream.

I'll be checking this one out... Hopefully it will be better than that Surtur Rising pile of shit... I was such a huge fan of everything leading up until their last album but they really messed up with that one...

I really liked Surtur Rising( For Victory or Death is simply awesome!!) but I would like to listen a faster and more powerful album. I also expect another spectacular album cover though the last one was not my favourite( TOTGs cover is unbeatable!).

Funny... I actually thought the cover art for Surtur was the best yet...

and I must admit For Victory Or Death was a great song... that and War Of The Gods were good, just didn't find anything else on the album to my taste... hopefully their next album will win me back...